Jesus, Lord,
You are the way of hope for an uncertain humanity.
Reveal to us once again the Face of God’s love
and deepen our desire to make it known, following in your footsteps, by becoming brothers and sisters to all,
brothers and sisters to all. In your name, blessed for ever and ever.
Jesus, Lord, even today you look down on the weary and bewildered crowds.
Even today, you fill men and women with your compassion, and you send them out,
without power or security, rich only in the Good News of your Love,
which is a hand stretched out towards each person and the meaning offered to all life.
You send two by two, because faith is communion,
and before it is proclaimed to those far away, it binds brothers together
and makes them companions in destiny.
Living God,
you have written a desire on our hearts,
it is unique,
it is the same for everyone :
To know you.
To know You, the All Other, whom no one has ever seen,
and yet whose features we can make out on every human face.
To know You, the Silent One?
so often heard in the words of our sisters and brothers.
A word that calls us to silence, a word that calls us to be.
Remember, Jesus, Lord, the day you looked for a well to stop at…
In the scorching midday sun, you spoke of living water that satisfied as well as quenched thirst.
And we, this evening, come to prayer as we come to the well,
We seek Your Presence as we seek the spring.
With Elijah, whose desire drove him to the torrent of Kerith, with Mary, whose eagerness to meet Elizabeth
set out through the mountains of Judea,
we too come to You.
May our very thirst be the impetus that moves us
may it set us on our way again and again, daring to believe that you are waiting for us, that you are the first to thirst,
thirsting to meet us.
Holy Spirit, whose imprint, like a mysterious seal on our hearts, we have carried since our baptism, no river, no great waters can extinguish the love with which God, in You, loves the world, come and irrigate our prayer!
God of all wisdom, we beseech you in the name of your Son Jesus Christ.
Help us to break down the walls we constantly build,
the walls of our hearts and the walls that generate hatred, violence, fear and indifference
between men and between peoples.
By your Spirit of strength and life, give birth to trust and love in us and in this world,
springing from the cross and resurrection of your Son Jesus, whom you give us as our brother…
Our God,
in Jesus, you have given us your boundless love.
His Word awakens and shakes us at every stage of our lives.
No one knows better than he does how to tell us who to worship
and what gestures and signs of solidarity you expect from us.
May your Spirit make us permeable to this Light that leaves nothing in the shadows,
and may our actions match our words…
Dear Lord,
Hear our voice when we ask you to breathe into the hearts of all men the wisdom
the wisdom of peace, the determination of justice.
Hear our voice when it echoes from the multitudes in every country
and under every sky do not want war and are ready to walk the road of peace
and conciliation. May we too be ready, and for this we ask you
with the strength of your Spirit, the courage to disarm our hearts.
Hear our voices, Father, and in them, the voice of Jesus. Through him, grant the world peace,
in this time and for all eternity.
Lord God,
Like Jeremiah, we stammer when we have to open our mouths.
Like Jeremiah, we step aside when your Word comes upon us
and, like Elijah, we want a hollow in the rock where we can hide our face.
You know us completely and we still know you so little.
Your mystery, God, belongs to you, as do the many ways in which you come to us.
Give us this respectful prayer that does not fear the dark, but remains alert,
trusting that your Word carries within it the light of a plan of Love.
Lord our God,
to guide us on the path where you yourself come to meet us, you give us a single word
that contains all the others: “You will love”. Let it be the lamp of our steps.
Your Word is like bread. Give us the gift of savouring it, of sharing it
and draw strength from it for our journey.
Your Word is like water. May it irrigate in us all that is barren or dried up
and lead us to its source.
Your Word is like fire. May it enlighten us and warm us,
may it burn us with the desire for communion.
Your Word is like the earth. Root us in it so that we may experience
the solidity and constancy of everything you give, demand and promise.
Lord God, your Word has taken on for us a face and a name; in Jesus Christ we have recognised your infinite nearness and your goodness.
your infinite closeness and goodness. May his life as a man of brotherhood and solidarity, linked to you with all his being, be
the trail of light that guides our journey in humanity. It is through him that we pray to you, God our Father
Father, in the Spirit that unites you for all eternity.
